I have been listening to this Slogan for quite sometime now, be it the 1993 bomb blasts where the city was up and running within a month’s time or the 11/7 train blasts; either which way Mumbaikars were up and living their regular lives the very next day as nothing went wrong.
And this slogan is proudly been flashed all over Mumbai.. coming to think of it.. How far do we live up to it? Do we really conjure the spirit of Mumbai? How many of us really understand the SPIRIT OF MUMBAI?
The very next day when Mumbai was still under attack, many people were working, traveling by trains knowing the entire Mumbai is on high alert… Was that the Spirit of Mumbai or pure negligence or Chalta hai.. attitude? …I was confused.
People saw the disaster on television, felt sad and angry and helpless.. but there was so little they could do sitting at home.. so they left it at that.
But I still couldn’t understand the Spirit of Mumbai…
Today, when I was reading the newspapers, I read about the 3 Taj staffers who have been held hostages, were shot in the head. Why? Because when they were ordered by the terrorists to set fire in the hotel… they bravely said NO… while reading that I felt goose bumps on my hand... and then I was confused no more.
Another instance I read was when a relative of a hostage was desperately trying to contact him on his cell phone but was switched off, so called the hotel front desk itself. At 3 a.m. on Thursday morning five hours into the attack with gunfire and grenade explosions going on above her, the receptionist picked up the phone at the TAJ and said, “The Taj Mahal Hotel, Good Morning.”
And I thought that’s the Spirit of Mumbai : professional, alert, competent, world class.
A Few men with guns cannot change the Spirit of Mumbai.
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